tadpole-596-918256 Review of Yolanda and the Thief

Yolanda and the Thief (1945)

This film is primarily a product placement puff piece for . . .

[7/10 · 14 May 2021]

. . . Big Tobacco. Throughout YOLANDA AND THE THIEF, the first-mentioned title character's REAL Guardian Angel (aka, Mr. Candle) smokes like Chimney Rock on Pow Wow Eve. At one point this proponent of emphysema and cancer compels Johnny-the-Thief to light a half dozen cigarettes for him (one for each of his spider-like six arms). When he's not spreading terrible toxins from a mouthful of Coffin Nails, Candle is gassing his captive audience with the stench of his ubiquitous lung-clogging cigar. More fading stars of Mr. Astaire's generation died from being smitten and smote by smoking than in car, train and plane crashes combined. (Though Big Booze claimed more than its share of Tinsel Town luminaries, Demon Rum ran a distant second to the number succumbing to ball-and-chain smoking.) But as YOLANDA sings, "Smoke, smoke, smoke your butt; cut off your air stream . . . "